“We’re in the Champions League to play the best teams and Barcelona are definitely one of them,” he said.

“Having played against Real Madrid last season, there is some symmetry to it, playing Barca this time around. It’s a fantastic challenge for us, one we’ll look forward to and one we’re ready for.

“You want to test yourselves against the best players in the world, but we don’t want to just test ourselves, we want to compete against them. That’s definitely the case with Barcelona.

“Inter have been a bit of a sleeping giant in the last few years."

Spurs will face Messi and co. at the Nou Camp (Image: GETTY)

“The Club has history against them in the Champions League so it’s great to play a team like that and PSV, another very well-known European side and Dutch teams are always very strong and play a nice style of football – every game will bring up different challenges and it’s exciting for us.

“We’ll be ready for all of those challenges.”

They begin their campaign with a trip to Inter Milan on the 18 September (5.55pm KO), before hosting Barcelona on 3 October.

Next they visit PSV Eindhoven on 24 October (5.55pm KO), before playing the return fixture on 6 November.

They round their fixtures off with a home tie against Inter, before rounding off at the Nou Camp in Barcelona on 11 December.